XYZ

X&Y CURATE! Seminars - Winter 2011/2012

2011-12-05T03:03:00.001+02:00

X&Y (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou & Poka-Yio), the co-founders of the Athens Biennial, are presenting a series of seminars on curating, in AKTO College of Art and Design from December 2011 to January 2012.
The seminars cover a range of material on contemporary curating. They are held in Greek. More info here.

XYZ OUTLET #23: Nicolas Vass // Re-constructing Hasil: a performance by The Hasil Adkins Traditional Ensemble // Tuesday 6 December

2011-12-05T01:37:00.001+02:00

XYZ OUTLET #23: Nicolas Vass // Re-constructing Hasil: a performance by The Hasil Adkins Traditional Ensemble // Tuesday 6 December // 20:00 - 21:00

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 6 December we are presenting, in conjunction with the 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME, Nicolas Vass’ work Re-constructing Hasil: a performance by The Hasil Adkins Traditional Ensemble.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

About Re-constructing Hasil: a performance by The Hasil Adkins Traditional Ensemble.

Re-constructing Hasil is a tribute to Hasil Adkins (193? – 2005), a one man band who began performing in the Southern USA in the 1950s. Born in West Virginia during the Great Depression, Adkins’ performance style, where all instruments and vocals are played by him alone, is based on a mistake he made as a young boy when he thought that the music he heard on the radio was performed by a lone musician. The motif of people traveling across the U.S. carrying their very few worldly possessions on their back, characteristic of the Depression period as narrated in books like Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, recurs in Adkins’ self-schooled, self-made and self-reliant form of musical performance. Arms, legs, vocal melodies, harmonies, beats, guitar riffs and harmonica croons emerge energetically from the performance of a single man.

The Hasil Adkins Traditional Ensemble’s re-enactment of Adkins’ one man band began in 2007, and has continued through a recession that repeatedly references the stock market crash of 1929. Where Adkins may be seen as the quintessential example of the self-made man that is at the heart of the American Dream, the Ensemble's performance is not intended as fuel for the myth we currently hear from governments trying to flog austerity programmes and so-called 'creative economies': that in times of hardship superior forms of individual creativity emerge. Rather, Re-construcing Hasil is performed as a tribute to the pains and the actions of the hyper, multi-tasking, infinitely flexible, auto-didact and excessively self-reliant individual touted as the ideal type of the contemporary worker and survivor of a dismantled welfare state. Furthermore, the Ensemble performing within the realm of contemporary art highlights the relationship between this virtuosic, self-propelling and self-organising worker and the contemporary artist who is in many ways its prototype.

About Nicolas Vass:

Nicolas Vass is an Argentinian artist born in Buenos Aires in 1977 and currently lives and works in London. His work is performance, drawing and text based, investigating the dynamics, tensions and politics between individual and collaborative work. In the past few years he has been working with several collectives.

XYZ OUTLET #22: Yiorgos Tzirtzilakis and a Group of tutors and students from the Architecture Department of the University of Thessaly // DE HOMINIS APPARATUS // Tuesday 22 November

2011-12-05T01:27:00.001+02:00

XYZ OUTLET #22: Yiorgos Tzirtzilakis and a Group of tutors and students from the Architecture Department of the University of Thessaly // DE HOMINIS APPARATUS // Tuesday 22 November // 20:00 - 21:00

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 22 November we are presenting, in conjunction with the 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME, the performance DE HOMINIS APPARATUS by Yiorgos Tzirtzilakis and a group of tutors and students from the Architecture Department of the University of Thessaly, at XYZ Outlet #22.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

About DE HOMINIS APPARATUS

The structure of the performance DE HOMINIS APPARATUS, by the group of the Architecture School of the University of Thessaly, is a type of a labyrinth with no ‘outside’, where each person’s narratives and research start from a different concept each time (such as Dispositif, Eco-nomy, Biopolitics, Sovereignty, Desecration, Law, Body, Knowledge, Desire,Fear, Dignity, Subject, Object, Thing, Disaster etc, concepts described by Giorgio Agamben) , to be led back into the same centre, the Apparatus. During the performance a type of an archive will be compiled from online resources and a printer will become the “nightmare of documentation”.

The performance will attempt, in this way, to communicate another type of speech, “hypertautological”, based on the psychoanalytic tactic of hyperidentification. In this way a linear and hierarchical narrative character will be prevented, creating the impression of a claustrophobic atmosphere, a type of inverted Kafkik tower, where any attempt of exiting the Apparatus, draws the subjects back inside.

This action was triggered by the department’s recent workshop What is an Apparatus? - drawing from the book of the same name by Giorgio Agamben. The concept of the “apparatus” allowed the workshop to trace what binds together contemporary architecture with art practices and with what we mean when we talk today - at a time of acute crisis - about biopolitical and humane communities. Moreover, during the workshop, the participants encouraged reflection upon the way we understand the world, relationships, behaviours and objects, in real time.

The term "apparatus" ("dispositif " in French - a mechanism ) is a key term introduced by Michel Foucault, and is widely used to refer to an unspecified order of techniques that encircle, limit and, finally, define the human subject. Agamben traces the origins of the term within the territory of economics - by recognising the same conceptual genealogy to that of the science of economics. The author supports that our lives depend entirely on a set of "apparatus" that we are unable to “destroy”, or even to transform into a fascinating, radical privilege.

The workshop explored and evaluated “wild thinking” and the practices of everyday social relationships and exchanges, or rather, every possible or latent forms of personal and social creativity, as apparent in atypical behaviours and do-it-yourself practices.

About the participants:

Tutors:

Nadia Kalara, Maria Papadimitriou, Lois Papadopoulos, Yiorgos Tzirtzilakis.

Co-ordinator:

Yiorgos Rymenidis

Students:

Danae Avaraki, Despoina Georgiadou, Aggelina Dagka, Avrokomi Zavitsanou, Maria Kotoula, Aggeliki Meli, Yiorgos Berdos, Chrysa Daflouka, Chara Stergiou, Grigoris Tsantilas.

XYZ Outlet #21: Giorgos Papadopoulos // Book presentation: Notes Towards A Critique of Money //

2011-11-05T13:54:00.002+02:00

XYZ OUTLET #21: Giorgos Papadopoulos // Book presentation: Notes Towards A Critique of Money // Tuesday 8 November

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 8 November we are presenting, in conjunction with the 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME, Giorgos Papadopoulos’ first book Notes Towards A Critique of Money.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.
About the presentation of Notes Towards A Critique of Money
The presentation of the book Notes Towards a Critique of Money constitutes the first in a cycle of four talks moderated by Giorgos Papadopoulos, examining the subject of social economy and alternative exchange systems (Local Exchange Trading Systems – LETS) both as viable alternatives of goods and services distribution and as political actions of resistance to the logic of the “free” market and monetary relationships. The other three talks will be presented as sessions of The Public School in Athens (http://thepublicschoolinathens.net/), part of the projec Word of Mouth, curated by KERNEL, and currently showing in MONODROME.

Giorgos Papadopoulos will talk about his book along with artist Nikos Arvanitis whose work Promising Megaphones illustrates the chapter “Ideology, Discourse, Social Reality”.
Papadopoulos’ book highlights the functions of money in the organization of the capitalist symbolic order and in the constitution of subjectivity in the market. Combining Lacanian psychoanalysis and Baudrillardian structuralism, Notes creates a universe where price and sign are entangled, giving rise to the dominant organizing form of capitalism.

Taking into account the limitations of the theoretical analysis, the publication also includes a series of artworks that are used both to illustrate the argument and to challenge the unconscious links between the market and the subject, as it is mediated by money and ideology.

Notes towards a critique of money does not only aspire to raise a theoretical challenge against capital and to open up possibilities of emancipation, but to point towards a new aesthetic of political analysis.

Notes Towards a Critique of Money was published by the Jan Van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands in May 2011. Designed by Neda Firfova. Afterward by Yannis Stavrakakis. The book features artworks by Société Réaliste, Yuko Kamei, Nikos Arvanitis, Zachary Formwalt, Jean-Baptiste Maitre, Valentin Rurhy, Kay Walkowiak, Shogo Matsushiro, Axel Loytveld, Herve Graumman, Hadrien Dussoix, Donatella Bernardi, Wolfgang Fuetterer and No Wonder.

The book is published under a creative commons license and can be downloaded from: http://www.mediafire.com/?qmpavwj4j95832r

About Giorgos Papadopoulos

Giorgios Papadopoulos is an economist and a philosopher. His research gravitates around money and its socioeconomic functions. He holds a Master of Philosophy in the Social Sciences from the London School of Economics and he is pursuing his PhD in Philosophy and Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He is a member the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique (CLIC) of the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, he is affiliated with the International Network for Economic Methodology (INEM) and the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE). He has published articles in scientific journals, art catalogues, and edited volumes in English, Greek and Spanish. Currently he is coordinating a research project on the Greek Economy entitled Icongraphies of the Drachma; Speculations on Symbolic Value.

http://georgiospapadopoulos.info

XYZ OUTLET #20: Panayiotis Koulouras | Im-pressions

2011-10-24T20:23:00.001+03:00

XYZ OUTLET #20: Panayiotis Koulouras | Im-pressions | Tuesday October 25th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 25 October we are presenting, and in parallel with the 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME, the installation Im-pressions by Panayiotis Koulouras.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

During September and October XYZ Outlet’s projects are presented within the framework of the international contemporary art platform ReMap 3.
About Im-pressions

2011: constant, overwhelming and contradictory, the news contribute towards a climate of instability. Panayiotis Koulouras collects images - symbols from the news, and prints them on pieces of broken marble he collects from the streets. Bin Laden, Gaddafi, Julien Assanz and Lady Gaga, amongst others, are made into stamps and impressed en masse, in red colour, on the surface of the broken marble - a material heavily associated with the notion of “greekness”, and, on occasion, used as a weapon, as demonstrated by recent events.

Impressions transforms the perception of a reality filtered via the Mass Media - “news” that formulate the collective consciousness - into an unstable ground, strewn with the fragments of a memorial that never arises.

Koulouras observes and records on the stone. He formulates and reconstructs an image, an impression, and at the same time challenges the way we perceive a defunct memorial, a memorial installed as ruins, a memorial of amnesia and of the ephemeral.

About Panayiotis Koulouras

Panayiotis Koulouras was born in Kalamata in 1973. He graduated from the Painting Department of the Fine Art School of Athens in 2007, where he studied under Professor Chronis Botsoglou.
He worked with the artist Vlassis Caniaris from 2004 to 2011. In 2010 he participated in the exhibition Time people and their stories curated by Manos Stefanidis in Benaki Museum, and he also presented his work “Ephemeral Memorials” at the Siakos-Hannape gallery.

XYZ OUTLET #19: Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas | “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY”

2011-10-07T13:34:00.001+03:00

XYZ OUTLET #19: Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas | “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY” | Tuesday October 11th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 11 October we are presenting “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY” by Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas. XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

During September and October XYZ Outlet’s projects are presented within the framework of the international contemporary art platform ReMap 3.

About “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY”

Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas will present at XYZ Outlet “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY” *. Photographs, objects and small sculptures comprise remnants of a punk, sacred route connecting two spaces, XYZ Outlet and ATOPOS CVC.

Taking as a starting point the installation at XYZ Outlet, a procession will follow through the streets of Metaxourgeio, inviting visitors to discover one-by-one elements that make up The Callas’ practice. The procession will end at ATOPOS CVC with a performance, concluding the route.

A scented iconostasis, colours and flavours, alcohol, rock ’n’ roll, DIY porn; the whole of The Callas world combined in a religious party en route.

* lyric from the latest 7” single by The Callas - Peepee

About Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas

The Callas are brothers and artistic collaborators Lakis and Aris Ionas. Using traditional folk-art practices and DIY messthetics The Callas create an atmosphere of magic, lust, alchemy and dark “joie de vivre”. Inspired by the eccentricity of The Fall, and via Fluxus performances, the No Wave movement, and Constructivist artists, The Callas deliver their Lo-Fi Geometry dogma.

In the past years they have exhibited their artwork at spaces such as ATOPOS CVC, Faggionato Fine Art (curated by Nadja Argyropoulou), AMP Gallery, The DESTE foundation, 2nd Athens Biennale 2009, HEAVEN (curated by Chus Martinez), the Yinka Shonibare Space, The Breeder gallery.

They have performed gigs all over Europe including at: Indietracks Festival (Derbyshire, UK), The Great Escape Festival (Brighton, UK) Artrocker Magazine (London,UK), The Fly (London,UK), Club Fandango at The Monarch (London,UK), Barfly (London,UK), Sala Apolo in Barcelona, Taktfrei fest (Berlin), De Roode Bioscoop,(Amsterdam, Netherlands). Also, in churches, flats, boats, mountains, toilets and with bands such as Au Revoir Simone, You Say Party! We Say Die!, The Wedding Present, Television Personalities, Stereo Total and The Victorian English Gentlemens Club.

In the past few months The Callas have shown work at Faggionato Fine Art (London, UK), have supported Grinderman in Athens after a Jim Sclavunos invitation and also released a split flexi single with The Victorian English Gentlemens Club (This is Fake DIY records).

www.thecallas.com

XYZ Outlet #18: KERNEL | Index of Potential

2011-09-22T19:18:00.001+03:00

XYZ Outlet #18: KERNEL | Index of Potential | Tuesday September 27th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 27 September we are presenting Index of Potential by the curatorial project KERNEL.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

The Index of Potential is an open, online collection of texts that function as theoretical or practical tools, related to ways of distribution, access and management of information of any kind, as a cultural product. Anyone can access the information and contribute.

The Index is part of KERNEL’s wider research on contemporary practices of knowledge and information production and distribution, leading to the development of the idea of a restored and reconfigured ‘oral culture’ brought about through the proliferation of digital media and network communications.

On the occasion of the presentation of the Index of Potential at XYZ Outlet, KERNEL have invited a network of the Index’s contributors to submit new content that will be printed as a specially designed poster and handout. Using the added content either as source material or as inspiration, KERNEL will also present a video work. The video constitutes an abstract, hour-long narrative structure around the idea of the “economy of creativity”. Functioning as another possible information distribution channel, the video explores the structure of dispersion through storytelling

http://indexofpotential.net

About KERNEL

KERNEL represents a collaborative project between Pegy Zali, Petros Moris and Theodoros Giannakis. Functioning as a platform of artistic research and curation, KERNEL investigates the contemporary condition of cultural production, re-production, distribution and experience.

KERNEL has curated projects including Full/Operational/Toolbox (Temporary Project Space M21, Athens 2010) and BYOB London (The Woodmill, London 2011). It has participated in projects including SFD (National Technical University, Athens2009) and KAM Workshops (Center of Mediterranean Architecture, Venetian port, Chania Crete 2011).

http://kernel-platform.com/

XYZ Outlet | Poka-Yio | Bordello Nacional | Curated by Marina Vranopoulou

2011-09-06T21:49:00.001+03:00

XYZ Outlet : Poka-Yio | Bordello Nacional | Curated by Marina Vranopoulou | 12/9 - 30/10 | Iassonos 47, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

ΧΥΖ Outlet
Poka-Yio: Bordello Nacional
Curated by: Marina Vranopoulou

On the occasion of ReMap 3, XYZ Outlet presents Bordello Nacional, an exhibition by Poka-Yio plus invited guests. The exhibition will be open between 12/9 - 30/10 at 47 Iassonos Street, Metaxourgeio.

About Bordello Nacional

Sexuality is always there. In-between your half open legs; a vertical arrow. It pulls you towards earth like a bomb. It screams to you “here, here, wherever you go you will always be here”, tied to the soil, like a balloon that attempts to snap off. It’s your first instinct; your only instinct.

Outside, tourists are lost in the backstreets. Open maps, sex with the city, the harlot city. You pay the city to make it your own.

The lights outside the ‘houses’ are not red. They are white. In daylight they do not stand out much. In daylight love and sex do not stand out much. The groans are alike.

Bordellos resemble train stations; full of carriages. You come and unload all that weighs you down. The carriages crackle. Trains pass by. Boys pass by. Some of them, you long for, you get off with them, yet, you do not reveal this. Never reveal that you want them. Never think they may want you back.

Customer. You will feel comfortable here at Bordello Nacional. There is immunity to the idea of failure and this, oddly, is similar to the world we live in. You cannot disappoint anyone. The laws of order exist but do not be alarmed, they are weakened. The setting in each room is disturbed. The atmosphere sticks to your skin like sweat, like a secretion, it penetrates your conscience, it nestles deeper than any other (hyper-) stimulation. You love it for what it is. Cheap. Primitive. A setting for people-clients. Balloon-people.

Come as you do. Sex lasts twenty minutes. Against the familiar wall. At Iassonos Street. In the phallic building with the best view of the Temple of the Virgin Goddess.

Marina Vranopoulou

About Poka-Yio

Poka-Yio is a visual artist. He is also a contemporary art curator, member of the XYZ curatorial trio and the co-artistic director of the Athens Biennale. His work examines the attraction/repulsion bipolarity and its transfer from the sphere of personal to the political.

About Marina Vranopoulou

Marina Vranopoulou is an art historian, a PhD Research Candidate for Goldsmiths College in London, the Project Coordinator of DESTE Foundation’s Project Space Τhe Slaughterhouse in Hydra, and the Curator of the What is to Be Done? program at the Cycladic Museum.

About XYZ Outlet

XYZ Outlet is part of the wider practice of the curatorial team XYZ, composed of Poka-Yio, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou and Augustine Zenakos.
During its twelve months of existence and through a rolling bi-weekly program, it operates as an "anxiety indicator" and as an “outlet” for depositing views in relation to exhibition production and artistic practice.

Information
XYZ Outlet
Poka-Yio: Bordello Nacional
47, Iassonos Street, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens quite close to the Metaxourgeio Metro Station.

DURATION
12/9-30/10/2011

WORKING HOURS
12/9-18/9
Opening: Monday, 12/9, 17:00-22:00
Tue-Fri: 17:00-20:30
Sat-Sun: 12:00-20:30
21/9-23/10
Wed-Fri: 17:00-20:30
Sat-Sun: 12:00-20:30
24/10-30/10
Mon-Fri: 17:00-20:30
Sat-Sun: 12:00-20:30

For further information regarding Bordello Nacional please visit www.xyzprojects.org, www.remapkm.org or contact Elina Kakourou, T: +30 6978696342 Ε: officepokayio@gmail.com

XYZ Outlet #17: Georgia Sagri | Antigone Model

2011-09-05T17:48:00.000+03:00

XYZ Outlet #17: Georgia Sagri | Antigone Model | Tuesday September 13th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

XYZ Outlet re-opens and continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. On Tuesday 13 September we are presenting the performance
Antigone Model by Georgia Sagri.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

About Antigone Model

For this performance, Georgia Sagri visits Sophocles’ play Antigone and draws upon its seminal tragic figure, a character fiercely consistent with her actions and morals whose choices defy the power of governance and state control.

Sagri approaches the Greek tragedy also via its translation by Friedrich Hölderlin (1804) and its adaptation by Bertolt Brecht, ANTIGONEMODELL (1948), set in 1945s Berlin.These three texts act as forces compelling the body to produce fundamental modules of sentiment (cry, laughter, facial expressions) that are repeated and are re-used.

By recording and sampling sound during the hour-long performance, Sagri creates live a repetitive sound-space that turns into movement. The notions of space, gender and parrhesia – bold, fearless speech – are disturbed and re-evaluated again and again. The performer and the viewer share the topos and the time of the tragedy, blurring the boundaries between performance and spectacle.

About Georgia Sagri

Georgia Sagri was born in Athens in 1979 and lives and works in New York. Her performances examine identity, language and the investigation and catalysis of existing structures. Often her works involve repetition and extended duration. A common thread of her practice is the formal study of what constitutes a performance and the re-assessment of the performer in relation to the audience, stage and historicity.

http://georgiasagri.blogspot.com/

XYZ Outlet #16: Jimmy Efthimiou & Orizontas Gegonoton (Event Horizon) // "Eros or Nothing"

2011-07-22T15:39:00.003+03:00

XYZ Outlet #16: Jimmy Efthimiou & Orizontas Gegonoton | Eros or Nothing | Tuesday July 16th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens

XYZ Outlet continues, “DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie”. For the last XYZ Outlet of the summer on Tuesday 26 July we are presenting the intervention “Eros or Nothing” by Athens-based artist Jimmy Efthimiou of the collective Orizontas Gegonoton (Event Horizon).

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

About the intervention “Eros or Nothing”

Jimmy Efthimiou of the collective Orizontas Gegonoton (Event Horizon) invites the public to ponder on the notions of Eros and Nothing, particularly during a time of financial and social crisis. “Eros or Nothing” starts as a questionnaire addressed to the audience, and develops into a multifaceted intervention which includes a projection of images, a dance performance and a few radio-controlled helicopters - a quirky reference to the former president of Argentina, Fernando de la Rua, who fled the Government House by helicopter when the country declared bankruptcy in 2001.

The questionnaire is included below and you may fill it out in advance and bring along or complete on the spot at XYZ Outlet. The answers are marked as follows: 1st question - 1 point, 2nd Question - 2 points and so on. The winner will be decided arbitrarily. The prize is a radio controlled helicopter. The audience is also invited to bring along their own radio controlled helicopters.

“Eros or Nothing”

A) Can naivety mobilise History?

1. No. This is a job exclusively for the technicians of power.
2.It has sufficient capacity to do so.
3. It has to.
4. It should.
5. That is an interesting question.

B) OUST! Define. Is it:

1.A vulgar, populist expression of relief.
2. A political message with various interpretations.
3. The operative word to shoo away a dog.
4. A brand of air-freshener, cleaning products etc.
5. An encoded message (acronym) of post - post-modern transgression.

C) If action replaces tears, what does teargas replace?

1. Don’t know/Don’t want to answer
2. The reversal of reversal.
3. The Stockholm Syndrome
4. Good company.
5. The ghost of liberty.

D)”Eros or Nothing”. Discuss.

About Jimmy Efthimiou and Orizontas Gegonoton (Event Horizon)

Jimmy Efthimiou

Born in 1961, he studied Mathematics and Art. He is involved with Art as he never had the will or the courage to excel in scuba diving or mountain climbing. His recent work comprises of details of gigantic works (of his).

Orizontas Gegonoton (Event Horizon) collective

An initiative by people working in culture and education, aiming to infuse everyday life with art and researching the contradictions that appear in the transitory era we live in. The collective comprises of more than 300 artists, photographers, architects, sculptors, writers, musicians etc. It is a Non - Profit Organisation founded in 2006 in Ilia, Greece, and has produced cultural activities throughout Greece and abroad. They are in the process of opening an interdisciplinary art space in Athens, at Keramikos Street 88, in the inner-city area of Keramikos.

http://orizontasgegonotwn.blogspot.com/

XYZ Outlet #15: Andreas Angelidakis//The Building that went to the Mountain (Demo of a study for a dying building)- A talk

2011-07-08T20:45:00.004+03:00

XYZ Outlet #15: Andreas Angelidakis | The Building that went to the Mountain (Demo of a study for a dying building)- A talk | Tuesday July 12th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday July 12th we are presenting the talk The Building that went to the Mountain (Demo of a study for a dying building) about the Casino Mont Parnes (located on Mount Parnitha, 30km north of Athens) , based on an idea, and organised by architect Andreas Angelidakis. The talk will include the artist Kostis Velonis and the architects Agapi Proimou, Memos Phillipides, Giorgos Tzirtzilakis and Aristide Antonas.

About the talk The Building that went to the Mountain (Demo of a study for a dying building)

A wounded building is lying on a mountain, overlooking a city slowly sinking in crisis. A network of pipes, cables and work-site units are choking the building, like machines trying to keep it alive. Or maybe the opposite is happening – maybe this network is sucking the last breath of life from the cabled carcass. If you look closely you can see that the cables do not stop at the machines surrounding the building; they extend down the side of the mountain, reaching down all the way to the city.

The Mont Parnes hotel, designed by the architect Pavlos Mylonas (1915 – 2005), is a prime example of Greek Modernism.

In ‘70s Athens, when you said “I'm going to the Mountain” it meant that you were going to gamble at the Casino of Mont Parnes. In order to get in the Casino, it was enough for you to wear a tie and to have with you a tax return form proving your wealth. Today, after a series of failed renovations and partially destroyed from fire and time, the Casino is under a peculiar temporary demolition state, aiming to replace the building with a new casino, one which will “bring back to life the spirit of post-war modernism”. The talk will touch upon issues such as the operation of the Casino in a time of bankruptcy, its upcoming “Chinese style” reconstruction ,and also the possibility that works of the Modern Movement in architecture are overrated.

Related links
http://andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com/2011/04/networked-ruin-of-mont-parnes.html
http://andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com/2010/04/adbusted.html
http://www.sansimera.gr/articles/401
http://www.ered.gr/gr/articlesInside.php?art=15640
http://www.arxaiologia.gr/site/content.php?artid=7882

About Andreas Angelidakis

Andreas Angelidakis is an architect who investigates the idea of Mountains, Clouds and Websites as much as buildings and trees and people's behaviour. He maintains an experimental practice in Athens, Greece, a studio involved in building, designing and speculating the contemporary ecosystem of screens and landscapes. He usually operates at the intersection of binary systems: Art and Architecture, Virtual and Real, Building and Nature, Ruin and Construction. The medium Angelidakis uses is habitation: of buildings, clouds, spaces, furniture, videos, online communities or exhibition spaces (Athens Biennial, MUSAC, Fargfabriken), while writing, blogging and teaching. In 2009 he designed the 2nd Athens Biennale, HEAVEN.

www.angelidakis.com
www.andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com
http://andreasangelidakis.tumblr.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/@aangelidakis

XYZ Outlet #14: Elisavet Kapogianni // Are you enjoying an intercontinental life?

2011-06-23T14:15:00.003+03:00

XYZ Outlet #14: Elisavet Kapogianni | Are you enjoying an intercontinental life? | Tuesday June 28th from 20:00 to 21:00 strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday June 28th XYZ Outlet presents the installation Are you enjoying an intercontinental life? by Athens- based fashion designer Elisavet Kapogianni.

Are you enjoying an intercontinental life? aspires to create an immersive environment, highlighting the dark side of fashion; a side we consciously or unconsciously ignore. The title of the work itself poses a sarcastic question to both the workers and the consumers of the contemporary world, making the work’s intentions clear from the outset.

The ready-made and easily accessible clothes we enjoy today are part of a production chain involving many and varied departments, some directly connected with manual labour, and without the added value included in their design and promotion. The process of clothes-making has become remote and detached from their consumption, hidden in ateliers and manufacturing plants, often in sweatshops usually in places where the economic, political and cultural conditions allow it, labour rights are mostly nonexistent and child labour accepted.

The new conditions set by the financial crisis along with the inadequate political solutions posed to deal with it, allow for harsher work conditions (e.g. the abolition of collective agreements and of overtime), leading to the further disintegration of production units and commerce. What remains are abandoned, decadent spaces and bandaged creators.

Elisavet Kapogianni is a fashion designer. She studied at the University of Derby (UK). Upon graduation in 2002 she presented her first womens-wear collection at Graduate Fashion Week in London.She has worked for the London- based experimental brand Vexed Generation and has been involved with various cross-disciplinary design projects and exhibitions. She worked for seven years for a leading Greek womens-wear brand and in May 2010 she founded the Elisavet Kapogianni Design Studio in Athens. The Studio aims to be a creative workshop, exploring and crossing over ideas from various disciplines, operating as a resourceful fashion platform, responding creatively to design problems, but also communicating different ideas and notions beyond dress-making.

XYZ Outlet #13: YELP danceco.//no end, then/parergon 2

2011-06-11T21:02:00.002+03:00

XYZ Outlet #13: YELP danceco. | no end, then/parergon 2 | Tuesday June 14th, 2011 from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday June 14th, XYZ Outlet presents the performance no end,then/parergon 2 by Athens- based dance company YELP danceco.

The dance company YELP danceco. presents their new production, no end, then/parergon 2, a solo dance performed by Katerina Bella. The piece juxtaposes linear and circular considerations of time, relating to man - from birth to death - and nature where beginning and end merge into an endless time cycle.

no end, then/parergon 2, transposes us within nature’s life cycle. Place: a lake and a mountain (possibly a volcano). Time: no end, no limits, no pause but an eternal transformation.

Choreography: Mariela Nestora
Performer: Katerina Bella
Music: ILIOS
Costumes: Antonis Volanakis
Video: Louizos Aslanides
Lighting: Valentina Tamiolaki

YELP danceco. was founded in London (UK) by choreographer Mariela Nestora. Under her artistic direction, the company has performed in Greece and abroad and has collaborated with dancers from various European countries. In 2001 the company moved to Athens. They have been sponsored by companies such as Papastratos, Kraft-Jacobs-Suchard, METAXA, TSANTILIS and H2O and have received support by Oxford Metrics, the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, and the Robin Howard Foundation, London. YELP danceco. participated in the research project Choreodrome at The Place in London and has been funded by the European Union Kaleidoscope, The Place Commissions and Video Place for Videodance. Commissions include among others: Plesna Isba (Slovenia), Patra Cultural Capital 2006 (Greece) and Centre George Apostu (Romania).

http://www.yelpdanceco.gr/

Choreographer Mariella Nestora (born in Athens), holds a BSc Biology degree from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London and a MSc Human Molecular Genetics from St.Mary’s Medical School, Imperial College, London. She went on to study contemporary dance and choreography at the London Contemporary Dance School, and Visual Design for Dance at Laban Centre, London. She has danced with Allmouth.co., Hanna Gillgren co. and Snjezana Premus and has also worked as a lighting designer for various dance companies. She went on to form YELP danceco. After ten years in London she moved to Athens. Mariella Nestora presents one production per year with YELP. She works independently in theatre as a movement director, and as a choreographer for films and videos. Throughout the years she has collaborated with several theatre directors for works presented at the National Theatre of Greece, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the Municipal Theatre of Patras, The Epidaurus Festival and the Greek Festival.

XYZ Outlet #12: HOPE//I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR

2011-06-11T20:54:00.003+03:00

XYZ Outlet #12: HOPE | I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR | Tuesday May 31st, 2011 from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday May 31st, XYZ Outlet presents the performance I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR by Athens- based artist HOPE.

The performance I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR aims to build a temple for our fears. Drawing from such feelings as the tension caused by the unseen, and the unconscious desire for the harmful, the artist investigates how they could operate as a relief. The pre-knowledge of the unhappy and probably painful end of an event acts as some kind of healing, like the fire alarm that makes you want to hear of a fire; the crisis that makes you want to hear of the end of the economy; the war drums that make you crave to hear the news of a new war.

The costumes for I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR are designed by Digitaria.

About the artists

HOPE started as a street artist. His posters are a mixture of uneasy images and voyeuristic observations, masked by a facade of mythological symbolism. Combining public performance, installation, drawings, collage, posters and video projections, HOPE aims to introduce his personal vocabulary within an art context.

HOPE studied in the Law School of Athens.
Solo exhibitions include : The sun may not shine tomorrow, so suck my dick, 2008, K44, Athens, Next Exhibition, 2008, Starter Gallery, Dresden, Τhe house of Phoenix, 2010, (installation and performance with Michele Valley), KNOT Gallery, Athens and MOUNTAIN/HOPE, 2010, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens.
Group exhibitions include: Free for Wall Pt 3, 2008, Brick Lane Gallery, London, 3 Velvet Days in Heaven project, 2nd Athens Biennale, HEAVEN, Photography as a Performance, Athens Photo Festival, 2009, Athens, Illustration – LIFO exhibition, 2010, Benaki Museum, Athens, in the international exhibition of contemporary art OSTRALE '10, Dresden, 5th annual NY Art Book Fair, 2009, MoMA, New York, with his publication “thesewarsareoutburstofhypnosisonlythemasksareforreal” as part of the “Journal of Aesthetics and Protest” curated selection, Mind over Matter, 2011, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens and Sygxroni Ellinida, 2011, HUB, Athens.
He has formed the online bands A Glepner For Fenrir and Dokurogumo. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Greek Graphic Design & Illustration award for Best Cover Illustration.
http://hope-epoh.tumblr.com/

Digitaria is Athens-based designer Eleftheria Arapoglou. http://www.digitaria.gr/

XYZ Outlet #11: Irini Karayannopoulou & XYSM Live

2011-05-13T22:43:00.003+03:00

XYZ Outlet #11: Irini Karayannopoulou & XYSM Live | Tuesday May 17th, 2011 from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday May 17th, we are presenting a live performance by Athens-based artist Irini Karayannopoulou and music band XYSM.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

Can image become sonified? Can sound become visualised? Irini Karayannopoulou draws while XYSM play music. Sketches and sounds unravel, interweave, compete and collaborate with each other xenobiotically in a live performance primarily based on automatic writing, improvisation and DIY techniques. Music and the visual combine via the motor-tactile action of drawing - a symbiotic relationship emerges and media collide, bringing into question perception and coexistence. Who is following who?

A collective, hybrid experiment with an uncertain outcome.

About the artists

Irini Karayannopoulou (1973) studied at the Fine Art School of Saint Etienne in France. Her work – painting, drawing, animation and sound– has been exhibited in 14 solo shows worldwide, while her films have been projected in places such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin and the DESTE foundation in Athens.
She currently lives and works in Athens.

Irini Karayannopoulou is represented by Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, Athens and Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Thessaloniki.

http://www.art-tounta.gr/
http://aglimpseof.net/

XYSM formed in October 2009 in Athens by Chris Chondropoulos (drums/electronics), Yannis Saxonis (bass, guitar, keyboards & electronics), Sebastien Marteau (saxophones, guitar, devices) & Manolis Chatzidakis (bass, organ, trumpet & electronics). They have appeared live three times so far: at a public square, a record store and a gallery space.

http://www.myspace.com/xysmath

XYZ Outlet #10: Stelios Karamanolis & Toula Ploumis // "The Collection"

2011-05-02T19:48:00.004+03:00

XYZ Outlet #10: Stelios Karamanolis & Toula Ploumis | "The Collection" | Tuesday May 3rd, 2011 from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday May 3rd, we are presenting the project-group exhibition, "The Collection", by Greek artists Stelios Karamanolis and Toula Ploumis.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00.

About the project

"The Collection", is both a project and a group exhibition showcasing paintings, photographs, engravings and sculptures by twenty one artists. Since 2002 Stelios Karamanolis and Toula Ploumis decided to place works they had acquired through exchanges with fellow artists or as gifts under the umbrella of a collection –one still growing.

On the occasion of the XYZ Outlet show, where the works are presented together for the first time in the context of an exhibition and as a collection, Karamanolis and Ploumis morph from artists to art collectors to curators. At the same time, the artworks are defined by their collectible value and their status as property, as an exchangeable object and as a gift – as a commodity, momentarily transforming XYZ Outlet into a museum.

"The Collection" and its exhibition aim towards expanding the boundaries of concepts and roles within the world of contemporary art, and to comment on the work of art as an object of value, through a gesture of grandeur.

Participating Artists: Polydoras Abatzis (1977) / Margarita Bofiliou (1979) / Nikolas Diamantidis (1978) / Alekos Fasianos (1935) / Dimitra Giannakakou - Razelou (1981)/ George Giannopoulos (1953)/ George Grekas (1977) / George Kakanakis (1970)/ Adamantios Kafetzis (1977)/ Sifis Lykakis (1977)/ Nini (1966)/ Nikos Papadimitriou (1971)/ Kostas Sahpazis (1977) / Yorgos Stamkopoulos (1983) / Sofia Touboura (1977) / George Tourlas (1977) / Nikos Tranos (1957)/ Panagis Travlos (1977)/ Pavlos Tsakonas (1984)/ Caesar Vrettos (1980) / Paul Zografakis (1974).

About the 'Collectors'

Stelios Karamanolis was born in 1977 in Athens where he lives and works. He has been a student of the Fine Art School of Athens since 2004 studying mainly engraving under Michalis Arfaras and sculputure in the workshop of Nikos Tranos. In 2006 he studied at the University of Hildesheim in Germany. He has taken part in various group shows including: Rooms 2010, Kapatos, Oraioi San Amerikanoi , Kafeneon 2008, Pedio Drasis Kodra ,2005. At the same time he has been working with Toula Ploumis on collaborative projects.
http://stelioskaramanolis.blogspot.com/

Toula Ploumi was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1980 and lives and works in Athens. She studied at the Fine Art School of Athens between 2003-2008 under Marios Spiliopoulos and Rena Papaspyrou and at the University of Hildesheim in Germany between 2006-2007. She has taken part in various group shows mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki in galleries and project spaces and she also works with Stelios Karamanolis on collaborative projects. http://tulaplumi.blogspot.com/

XYZ Outlet #9: Ciprian Mureşan

2011-04-28T17:05:00.003+03:00

XYZ Outlet #9: Ciprian Mureşan | Tuesday April 12, 2011, from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

On Tuesday April 12th, XYZ Outlet presents the animation film Garbage (2007) and the video Dog Luv (2009) by Romanian artist Ciprian Mureşan.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only, as always, between 20:00 and 21:00. Dog Luv (duration 30:56’) will be screened twice while Garbage (duration 0:51’) will be shown on a loop.

About the works

Based on the play of the same name by Romanian writer Saviana Stanescu, Dog Luv (2009) depicts a pack of black puppet dogs who, encouraged by their leader Maddog (an angry and psychologically unbalanced dog), recite different methods of torture that have been practiced by humans throughout history. In spite of looking like a shadowy puppet show, the video is a dark commentary on human nature and the rituals of acceptance and exclusion in communities and societies. Dog Luv premiered at the Romanian Pavilion in the 53rd Venice Biennale 2009 (The Seductiveness of the Interval, artists: Stefan Constantinescu, Andrea Faciu, Ciprian Muresan, curator: Alina Serban)

In Garbage (2007) an adult is searching for food in a garbage bin. This more and more familiar scene of everyday life, presents the brutal reality of a world in transformation. Garbage is also characteristic of Muresan’s artistic process: he starts from some drawings that are later filmed sheet by sheet and turned into animated short films.

About the artist

Ciprian Mureşan works with a variety of media and symbols, creating rich and hypnotically attractive works that are firmly grounded to the perpetual present. His critical, caustic and yet humorous approach to history and belief systems like religion, communism, capitalism, offers a razor-sharp commentary on the relationship between the individual and the collective and highlights the dangers and possibilities of rising up against repressive identities.

Ciprian Mureşan (b.1977) lives and works in Cluj, Romania. He studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca. He is co-editor of artist-run magazine VERSION and since 2005, the editor of IDEA art + society magazine (www.ideamagazine.ro). Selected exhibitions include: Loophole to Happiness, Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, (2011), Ciprian Mureşan , NBK - Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2010), The Seductiveness of the Interval, Romanian Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale, (2009) and 1st Athens Biennale 2007, Destroy Athens.

XYZ Outlet #8: George - Icaros Babassakis | DDD [Debord Dérive Détournement]: Guy Debord and the City as a Playground

2011-03-28T15:35:00.005+03:00

XYZ Outlet #8: George - Icaros Babassakis | Tuesday March 29, 2011, from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

For its 8th edition XYZ Outlet is presenting the talk/event DDD [Debord Dérive Détournement]: Guy Debord and the City as a Playground by Greek poet and writer George - Icaros Babassakis.

An homage to the 80 years from the birth of Guy Debord (1931 - 1994), the talk/event DDD presents the French thinker’s and revolutionary’s theories on the city as a playground. “Poetry”, notes Babassakis, “now becomes an adventure within the labyrinth of the metropolis, a drifting (dérive); Art evolves into a cartography of chaos, a redefinition of its history through successive collages and montage (détournement)”.

George - Icaros Babassakis was born in April 1960. A poet, translator and writer, he has published acclaimed books on William S. Burroughs, the International Situationniste, Guy Debord and May ‘68. He has worked on Greek radio, namely Deftero Programma, ERA4, En Lefko, Sto Kokkino 105,5, and Kanali 1 Pireaus 90,4. Currently, he is a Guest Lecturer on the postgraduate programme of the Athens School of Fine Arts.

XYZ Outlet #7: Panayiotis Loukas | "D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres qui meurent"

2011-03-11T14:27:00.012+02:00

XYZ Outlet #7: Panayiotis Loukas | "D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres qui meurent" | Tuesday 15 March|8pm| Perdika 8 & Achilleos, Metaxourgeio

For its 7th edition XYZ Outlet is presenting the installation "D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres qui meurent" by Greek artist Panayiotis Loukas.

XYZ Outlet will be open to the public for one hour only between 20:00 and 21:00.

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that behind every living person stand thirty deceased, as this is the ratio between the dead and the living. But what makes a ghost noteworthy? Is it the mere fact that apparitions are somewhere else? Or that their appearances are exceptionally rare? If ghosts do indeed inhabit another world, why then appear in this one? If they remain here then how does one define what a ghost is? Why are they hiding? And if they are meant to hide why do they appear? Do they know they are ghosts or are they in denial? Could it be possible that they believe they are still some of us? How should ghosts act? Maybe it is a matter of race or of a previous life. Or is it a matter of a residence permit?

About Panayiotis Loukas

The works function as an ethology of the singular, similar to religious iconography, the difference being that herein there lies no promise of praise. They could act as decorations of the church of Nil. It is the realization that Jean-Honoré Fragonard and James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor could actually be the same person. An insidious decor against the faith of the others.

Panayiotis Loukas lives in Athens. He graduated from the Fine Art School of Athens in 2000. Since then he has participated in the 2nd Athens Biennial 2009, Heaven, in the section curated by Christopher Marinos, in Paint-Id (2009) at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki curated by Sotiris Bachtsetzis and several other exhibitions. In 2007 he received the AICA award for young artists. He is a regular contributor to kaput. online art magazine.

XYZ Outlet #6: Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter | "Ten Weyngaert"

2011-02-27T14:48:00.004+02:00

XYZ Outlet #6: “Ten Weyngaert" | A video by Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter, 2007 (Duration: 20 min) | Tuesday 1 March, three screenings at 20.00, 20.20 & 20:40 | Perdika 8 & Achilleos, Metaxourgeio

For its 6th outing, XYZ Outlet is presenting the video Ten Weyngaert by Belgian artists Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter.

Ten Weyngaert (2007) - “vineyard” in archaic Flemish - is the name of a community/youth centre in Brussels. The video presents the everyday bureaucracy and microcosm of the centre - a would-be utopian and creative haven gone a bit wrong - transposing it into a world ruled by a spider, with robots as intermediaries between the minute monarch and its subjects. Odd situations and hilarity ensue, in a tragicomic, allegorical study of group psychology and dynamics, especially when under pressure.

The collaborative work of artists Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys is rooted in a folksy, tragicomic sensibility honed into an experimental dramaturgy. Their video and photographic work use simple, symbolic sets, including the paradigmatic spaces of home, battlefield, urban periphery and community hall. They have engaged a recurring cast of nonprofessional actors as well as invented or adopted personae spanning the forms of puppets, dummies, plush animals, makeshift robots and rejected toys. These characters continually rehearse power dynamics and emotional entanglements, creating worlds not unlike our own, yet more focused, bizarre and bleak.

The artists seek ways to confront marginal, incapacitated, lost and alienated subjects without defining these ‘others’ in sociological terms. In this sense, and especially in their novel use of a ghoulish humour, De Gruyter and Thys broaden the scope of reflection on socially produced behaviour.

Jos de Gruyter (1965) and Harald Thys (1966) are based in Brussels and have been working together for over 20 years.

XYZ: CURATE!

2011-02-26T19:49:00.001+02:00

XYZ: CURATE! | Organized by ΑΚΤΟ | Duration: 20 hours, Spring 2011 (March 3rd - April 7th)| Information & Registrations on the AKTO website

XYZ are repeating last year's successful series of seminars on curating, in AKTO college of art and design. The seminars cover a range of material on contemporary curating. They are held in Greek. More info here.

XYZ Outlet #5: Mavros Kyklos

2011-02-07T17:50:00.005+02:00

XYZ Outlet #5: Mavros Kyklos | Tuesday February 15, 2011, from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

The Black Circle: an answer to a misguided comrade.

The Black Circle is the most genuine expression of the N.A. ideology in Greece. As a group of determined autonomists, we fight against the bourgeois state apparatus that compiles Greek parliamentary life. For more than two years, our networks fight against the onslaught of globalization with a single cause: to restore comradery and national autonomy.

The institutional guards of the state tremble and fall before our determination to transform the Greek youth into soldiers of fire, soil and blood. The state is trying to corrupt the youth by recruiting it into the organized youths of the bourgeois parties. The parliamentary far-Right is in full compliance with the agenda of global economy and remains faithful to the old disciplinary bourgeois state.

We have come to realize that our counter-propaganda machine has to endorse the structures of the art field in order to reach the most radical audiences of the social specter. Art has to overcome its glamorous status and reclaim the force of ideological density. Therefore we welcome the invitation by XYZ to present ourselves to the art public. On the 15th of February, The Black Circle will officially reply to an old friend, a misguided comrade who has lost track of the true meaning of autonomy. We want YOU there!!”

“The soldierly spirit is an attitude of mind which by no means needs to be connected with the use of weapons.” E.R.

XYZ Outlet #4: Yiorgos Veltsos - Talk

2011-01-27T21:47:00.011+02:00

XYZ Outlet #4: Yiorgos Veltsos - Talk | Tuesday February 1st 2011, from 20.00 to 21.00, strictly | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

For its fourth instalment XYZ Outlet is delighted to present a talk by Yiorgos Veltsos, on intellectuals, sexuality and a "gay becoming" in Greece.

"An intellectual is someone who thinks autobiographically." writes Yiorgos Veltsos. "Walter Benjamin, through his memories of Berlin, and “One Way Street”, showed us that he cannot separate theory from biography.

In Greece, the one who bares themselves - what Baudelaire called « mis à nu» (baring)- is being associated with Lakis Lazopoulos [comedian and TV personality]. The austerity, insulation of the intellectual caste, wills their presence to allude to purified water, without that pinch of salt, the lack of which makes it unsubstantial.

Foucault, in the book “To Mati tis Eksousias” [ed. A 2008 Greek collection of Foucault’s essays by Vanias Publishing], which Alexis Tsipras - president of the Greek left political party Synaspismos - gave to the President of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, two years ago in a symbolic manner, writes amongst other readings fit for a President, that “sexuality is part of the freedom we have in the world” because sex “is not a destiny but an opportunity for a creative life”. A gay ‘becoming’ - without it meaning gay necessarily - and its consequences, is what is missing from the intellectuals in Greece. So, yes, indeed “we must create a gay way of life.”

Yiorgos Veltsos is an academic and a poet.

XYZ Outlet #3: Panayiotis Lamprou - Photos from "Untitled History"

2011-01-13T15:32:00.001+02:00

XYZ Outlet #3: Panayiotis Lamprou - Photos from "Untitled History" | Tuesday January 18th 2011, from 20.00 to 21.00 | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

1 – What is normal?

0 – Normal is the expression.

XYZ are proud to present photographs from “Untitled History" by Panayiotis Lamprou, in an installation that reacts to the peculiar space of XYZ Outlet, baring the traces of previous actions. Six images are juxtaposed, hinting, sometimes sensitively and sometimes unflinchingly, at exclusion and humanitarianism, the “filter” of logic and the language of emotion.

XYZ Outlet will remain open to the public strictly for one hour, between 20.00 and 21.00.

"No, your mother… is not crazy. And neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother crazy. He’s merely miscast in a play. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river…" (Rumble Fish – F.F. Coppola 1983)

Few people will agree, but I’ll claim it anyway. Rumble Fish is by far the best movie ever made about the relation between 2 brothers. The main character of the movie, a boy called Rusty James, looks up to his older brother, the has-been band leader ‘The Motorcycle Boy’. He tries to understand him, to follow in his footsteps but he never succeeds. He never even comes close. A lot of people call this mellow romance for 16-year olds. I call it a magnificent masterpiece by a brilliant filmmaker with an important deeply human theme.

But what happens when your older brother dies at a very young age? When this brother has a handicap that is never spoken about. Well, then your search takes a very long time, you travel for 2000 miles and you end up making a photo essay.

Panayiotis Lamprou was born in Greece in 1975. He is a photographer. His older brother was born with Down syndrome. He died when he was very young. Of course, this made a profound impression on the young artist. When he was 25, he decided to really start looking for answers about his brother and people with a mental disability. For a European project, he traveled to Belgium as a volunteer. He worked there for half a year in an institution for people with a mental disability. During this period, he met some people from ‘De Kreek’. This is a relatively small non-profit organization (NPO) that already exists for more than 20 years. ‘De Kreek’ organizes creative summer camps and weekends for people with a mental disability. When the European project ended, Panayiotis went back to Greece. The basic idea for this photographic project however was already formed. It would take more than three years and a lot of effort before its final realization.

The project has two clearly distinctive parts. The first part contains pictures taken in the Dr. Guislain museum in Ghent, Belgium. This museum is located in a mental hospital. Its founder, Dr Guislain, was a pioneer in the treatment of people with a mental disability and psychiatric problems. The work of people like him has led to a much more human treatment of these people, together with scientific research. The museum has a large collection of documents and objects that give an overview of the ever changing attitude of society towards these people. And pure horror it once was… People tend to hate what they don’t understand. There was a lot that they didn’t grasp.

The second part of the photo essay are pictures made on a summer camp of ‘De Kreek’, july 2005. Maybe some of these pictures look ordinary at first sight: pictures of a summer camp, no different from the ones turning yellow in your closet. Just take a closer look. Look at the expressions on their faces. Look at the wide range of emotions. You don’t just see happy faces. There are also bored, happy, extremely serious faces. All too often, people with a mental disability are rather disrespectfully categorized as ‘cute’ or ‘happy’.

Maybe you’re offended by some of the pictures. You see a full grown man dressing up as a woman and you feel embarrassed. You see a man on the street, almost naked. Keep in mind that this camp is a micro-cosmos, where they can be themselves. They are treated with the utmost respect. There are no strict rules, their guidance is extremely individual.

Look at the pictures with an open mind, and enjoy.

By Erwin Goris, Volunteer

In 2002, I went to Belgium to participate in the European Volunteer Service of the organization Het Roerhuis for people with mental disability. I had the chance to visit the Museum Dr.Guislain in Ghent studying the history of medical treatment towards people with disabilities. Also, I had the pleasure to be hosted during E.V.S, by Stinne Van Espen the founder of the organization De Kreek. We had discussed this subject in depth. When she introduced me to the camp I saw the realization of her ideas in front of my eyes. The endless creativity, the fun entertainment, the equal treatment and educational behavior resulted into a fabulous event for anyone who participated.

In 2003, I went back to the Museum Dr.Guislain and photographed it’s permanent exhibition and the temporary exhibition titled Human, All Too Human. The combination of both exhibits emphasize on the description of the psychological treatment towards people inside the psychiatric institutions in history.

In 2005, I visited the summer camp of De Kreek. The photographer Diane Arbus had already approached people with disabilities in her work “untitled“. Her sensitivity, kindness and pure intention broke the distance with the unfamiliar. She expanded the limits giving a clearer view to the understanding of the meaning of existence. Her work was a secure base for me. Photography helps to come to the core of a subject without judgement, reality then reflects its character in clarity.

“untitled history” is dedicated to my brother Yiannis (1974 – 1981)

In honor to my soul brother Erwin Goris (1977 – 2010)

Panayiotis Lamprou

http://panayiotislamprou.wordpress.com

XYZ Outlet #2: “Port Bou: 18 Fragments for Walter Benjamin”

2010-12-17T16:37:00.001+02:00

XYZ Outlet #2: “Port Bou: 18 Fragments for Walter Benjamin” | A film by David Harding and Ross Birrell, 2006 (Duration: 33 min) | Tuesday December 21st, two screenings at 20.00 & at 20.35 | Perdika 8 & Achileos, Metaxourgeio

The Film

The film was shot on the occasion of the 65^th anniversary of Walter Benjamin’s death. It is structured in 18 fragments which mirror the 18 fragments of Benjamin’s Thesis on the Philosophy of History, the manuscript of which Benjamin carried in his briefcase across the Pyrenees. The film is shot on mini DV camera and all images and sound is from this footage. There are three main parts which are woven together.

The Events

During the film you will see a sequence of short dramatic re-enactments of Benjamin’s arrest at the Railway Station at Port Bou and his suicide at the Hotel Francia. This ends with the recital of a poem by Fernando Pessoa. The language of these events is mainly Catalan and has been left untranslated.

The Walk

As an integral and structural component of the documentary, I traced the final walk that Benjamin took across the Pyrenees into Spain. For Benjamin this was an arduous task, he was asthmatic with a heart condition and had to stop every 10miniutes to rest. He was wearing light shoes and clothing. His going was so slow he had to spend a night on the mountain open to the elements.

I do not view my retracing of his walk as a re-enactment. Possibly, with reference to the Keynote delivered by Mark Neocleous at last years MRG conference, Grave ReMarx: The Accumulating Dead, the walk is an act of redemption.

The Monument

Benjamin was buried in the small graveyard on top of the cliff above Port Bou. Hannah Arendt, who followed the same route across the Pyrenees some months later, and who sought Benjamin’s grave in vain, wrote of the scene: ‘The cemetery faces a small bay directly overlooking the Mediterranean; it is carved in stone terraces, the coffins are also pushed into such stone walls. It is by far one of the most fantastic and beautiful spots I have seen in my life.’ (Cited by Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship, p. 283)

In 1995 a monument to Benjamin was created by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan just outside the graveyard at the edge of the cliff. In David’s absence I would like to read a short passage from his notes from April 2005:

'I have visited and documented public art works all over the world including several by Karavan… In June 2004 I went to visit the monument. I had heard that there was a memorial to Benjamin there but had not seen photographs of it and thought that it might just be a plaque. I wanted, in any case, to pay my respects. What I found stunned me. The memorial work is in several parts. There is firstly the sculpture itself, ‘Passage’ and below the exit end of it the seas waves and rocks; an olive tree; the old stone tablets that marked his grave; a platform; the grave itself in the cemetery. It is called, ‘Passage’ and this is literally what it is. A corten steel covered passageway that cuts through the edge of the cliff and ends 50’ or so out over the sea. The end of the passageway is open to the sea and, but for a sheet of thick glass three quarters of the way down the 100 steps, one could fall/jump out of the end into the sea. This a major work of sculpture literally and metaphorically embedded in its location, in the tragedy that it incorporates and the call for tolerance and understanding across borders.'

[Excerpts from Ross Gainesville’s introduction to the film]

XYZ Outlet #1: In Danger of Early Disappearance

2010-11-30T17:28:00.017+02:00

XYZ Outlet #1: In Danger of Early Disappearance | A performance by Angelita Tsougou & Patricia Apergi | Tuesday, December 7th, 20:00 | 8, Perdika Street & Achileos Streets, Metaxourgeio

The first XYZ Outlet event is titled “In danger of early disappearance”, a performance based on “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a book which, though widely known, is not often appreciated for its deep and hard look into the dilemmas and conflicts of morality.

The performance is presented by actress Angelita Tsougou and Patricia Apergi. In their words: “In a temporary environment, a peculiar prince (doesn’t) look(s) at time. Snippets of a closed system pass repeatedly in front of him, in an attempt at answers. The more direct the question, the harder the answer. Uninvolved and impressing, the young prince mirrors those across, those outside, the others”.

Away and Boil Your Head

2010-07-02T19:20:00.038+03:00

Away and Boil Your Head | Selected works from the 1st & 2nd Athens Biennales | An exhibition curated by XYZ, within the project “OTHERS: Mediterranean views on contemporary art. The biennials of art of Marrakech, Istanbul, Athens in Palermo and Catania” | July 9th – November 7th 2010 | Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Palazzo Valle, Via Vittorio Emanuele, 122 Catania | http://www.fondazionepuglisicosentino.it/

XYZ present the exhibition Away and Boil your Head, with works by Alexis Akrithakis, John Bock, Savvas Christodoulides, Lydia Dambassina, Peter Dreher, Electronic Voice Phenomena, Tadeusz Kantor, Em Kei, Joachim Koester, Lotte Konow Lund, Mark Manders, Domenico Mangano, Nina Papaconstantinou, Ioannis Savvidis, Christoph Schlingensief, Gregor Schneider, and Ettore Sottsass.

The in-between is an unbearable place. We soon discovered that this place is also real. A place, however, made up almost exclusively of time, its sole distinctive property being this: it lasts.

We now find ourselves in this place as curators, while selecting works for this exhibition in Catania from the 1st and the 2nd Athens Biennale, conscious that we are on our way to completing an exhibition trilogy in 2011; but also as individuals, living in a country where everything feels suspended, banished in limbo. There is no sin other than the original one: bankruptcy.

From Destroy Athens, the first biennale, to Heaven, the second one, there extends a conceptual strand that we intend to stretch even further – to our third edition. This is the ongoing struggle of the subject against the dead-ends that appear in his/her path, as part of the collective identity he or she belongs to.

In both biennales, as well as smaller shows we have done recently, we worked on constructing a narrative space and treated the exhibition as an overall work; an overarching premise of meaning which might become experiential for the viewer, but might also be shaped by the viewer’s experience. Our practice, both when we curate ourselves and when we invite other colleagues, like we did in the second biennale, considers the large scale group exhibition as an experiential environment, where not only individual works become aspects of a proposed narrative, but also where an ensemble of spaces and objects becomes immersive, performative, effective.

With this exhibition, while trying to give the viewers an idea of what the Athens Biennale has been attempting to morph into a distinctive exhibition practice, and to present some of the themes that were central to both shows, we would also hope that we give a glimpse of things to come. It is, thus, a survey and a sample, but it also stands for this unique moment: a “suspension”, a moment-in-between. Yet, we hope it to be at least one more thing.

As a moment in time and as a snippet of practice, this show provides an opportunity to make a declaration, or, to put it more humbly, to vent: pressed under the weight of stereotypes – uttered, moreover, from an unmistakable position of power – we take refuge in the exhibition, facing the outside with ill-concealed humor: Away…

Selected installation photos from the exhibition:

Christoph Schlingensief

Stahlweg I-XII, 2006

multimedia installation

variable dimensions

Courtesy Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna

Mark Manders

Two Interconnected Houses, 2010

variable dimensions

slide projection loop with 80 b&w slides

Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp

Tadeusz Kantor

The Dead Class, 1975

[Umarla klasa]

DVD 72’

Andrzej Wajda’s film on the theatrical play by Tadeusz Kantor

Lotte Konow Lund

Domestic Violence, 2001

video 4’

Courtesy of the artist

John Bock

Lütte mit Rucola, 2006

video 35’ 41’’

Courtesy Klosterfelde, Berlin; Anton Kern, New York

Em Kei

Monument for the Unknown Hooligan (version 2), 2006 (version 1), 2009 (version 2)

bronze, marble

54x42x46 cm

Courtesy a.antonopoulou.art, Athens

From left to right: Ioannis Savvidis, Athina Map C (Part of the Athenscope Project),2007. ink on paper. 212x122 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Ettore Sottsass, Metafore n.21: Disegni per i destini dell’uomo. Disegno dell’orribile messaggio dell’uomo agli altri pianeti, 1976, San Gimignano. gelatin silver print. 40x30 cm. 1/25. Eleni Martinos’ Private Collection

Ettore Sottsass, Metafore n.21A: Disegni per i destini dell’uomo. Disegno dell’orribile messaggio dell’uomo agli altri pianeti, 1976, San Gimignano. gelatin silver print. 30x40 cm. 1/25. Eleni Martinos’ Private Collection

Ettore Sottsass, Metafore n.22A: Disegni per i diritti dell’uomo. “… o vuoi un trono?”, 1979, Alpi Apuane. gelatin silver print. 40x30 cm. 4/25. Eleni Martinos’ Private Collection

Alexis Akrithakis, Untitled, 1966-67. india ink on paper. 50x70 cm. Private Collection, Athens. Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

Savvas Christodoulides, The blushing Virgin Ι, 2009. porcelain. 30x54x30 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Alexis Akrithakis, Untitled, 1966. india ink on paper. 20x100 cm. Private Collection, Athens. Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

Domenico Mangano, La Storia di Mimmo, 1999. video 8’. Courtesy of the artist and Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia

Nina Papaconstantinou, Baisers Volés, 2009. 12 drawings, marker on transparent paper. 50x67 cm each. Courtesy of the artist and Siakos.Hanappe

From left to right: Savvas Christodoulides, The blushing Virgin Ι, 2009. porcelain. 30x54x30cm. Courtesy of the artist

Domenico Mangano, La Storia di Mimmo, 1999. video 8’. Courtesy of the artist and Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia

Alexis Akrithakis, Untitled, 1966. india ink on paper. 48,5x50 cm. Private Collection, Athens. Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

Nina Papaconstantinou, Five Bed-Time Stories, 2010. graphite pencil, pin-pricks on paper. 35x30 cm each. Courtesy of the artist

Alexis Akrithakis, The relationship between Letters and Coffee-shops, 1966. india ink on paper. 19x28 cm. Private Collection, Athens. Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

Alexis Akrithakis, The Arse of Tachtis, 1969. india ink on paper. 70x55 cm. Private Collection, Athens. Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

Ettore Sottsass, Metafore n.41:Decorazioni. Decorazione con moquette nylon 100%, 1977, Nevada. gelatin silver print. 30x40 cm. 1/25. Eleni Martinos’ Private Collection

Ettore Sottsass, Metafore n.37: Fidanzati. Il mio fidanzato architetto sceglie le piastrelle del bagno, 1977, Cairo. gelatin silver print. 30x40 cm. 2/25. Eleni Martinos’ Private Collection

Peter Dreher
Tag um Tag guter Tag (Day by Day good Day), since 1974
3paintings, oil on canvas
25x20 cm each
Courtesy Galerie Wagner + Partner, Berlin

left & right: Joachim Koester
Morning of the Magicians, 2005
series of 10 photographs (6 selenium toned silver gelatin prints and 4 C-prints)
47,5x60 cm each
Courtesy: Jan Mot, Brussels
centre: Nina Papaconstantinou
Diary (Robinson Crusoe), 2007
bound paper, thread, leather, gold-leaf
22x22x6 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Gregor Schneider
Weisse Folter, 2007
video 20’
Dusseldorf 2007
Courtesy of the artist

Lydia Dambassina
Le Lac, 2009
slide projection loop with 34 slides with music
photo by Yves Fajnberg, Lydia Dambassina.
music by Joachim Latarjet, Alexandra Fleischer
Courtesy of the artist and Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens

UPDATE: Watch Coverage of "Others", part of which is "Away and Boil Your Head. Selections from the 1st and 2nd Athens Biennales" on Exibart.tv (in Italian).

XYZ would like to thank the artists of both editions of the Athens Biennale, as well as the curators of the 2^nd Athens Biennale 2009; everybody at Palazzo Riso and Palazzo Valle; the lenders of the exhibitions; and as always the Athens Biennale team.

Others is an initiative of the “The Cities of the Mediterranean” project, which, from 2010 to 2012, will involve some of the major cities of the Mediterranean in activities and events that represent the identities and the production, economic, cultural, and art systems of the Mediterranean. “The Cities of the Mediterranean” is a project promoted by Palazzo Riso and the Fondazione Campania dei Festival, through an agreement between the Sicilian Region, Campanian Region, the Ministry for Economic Development (MISE).

For more information, please visit the Palazzo Riso website.

XYZ: CURATE!

2010-02-03T14:38:00.003+02:00

XYZ: CURATE! | Organized by ΑΚΤΟ | Duration: 20 hours, Spring 2010 (March 11th - April 29th) | Information & Registrations on the AKTO website

Heaven

2010-01-20T20:51:00.005+02:00

2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN | 15th June – 4th October 2009 | Palaio Faliro Beach, Athens | Curators: Dimitris Papaioannou & Zafos Xagoraris, Chus Martínez, Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Nadja Argyropoulou, Christopher Marinos, Diana Baldon | Artistic directors: XYZ | Exhibition design: Andreas Angelidakis

The 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN is designed as a multi-faceted contemporary art event, comprising of several exhibitions, actions, music and theatre performances, film screenings, symposia, etc, with the participation of more than 100 international artists. The exhibitions and events of the biennale will unfold along the coastline of Palaio Faliro, at a short distance from the city centre, the public beach called “Eden”, in various buildings and public spaces.

Artistic directors XYZ, have invited an eclectic group of curators to contemplate the subject of Heaven.
Heaven as a wide topic touches upon notions such as lost innocence, nature and ecology, utopias and ideal communities. From this premise, a creative dialogue begins, which will reflect upon the theme itself as well as the methodology surrounding large-scale periodical exhibitions.

Please find more info on "Heaven", as well as images from the exhibition, on the Athens Biennale website.

XYZ at the 2nd Art Business Conference

2010-01-20T19:29:00.001+02:00

2nd Art Business Conference | Wednesday May 27th 2009 | King George Palace Hotel, Athens

XYZ will be making a presentation at the 2nd Art Business Conference. XYZ will focus on issues of fundraising and financing large scale contemporary art exhibitions, particularly in relation to private vs public funding, and the way contemporary art is perceived in the context of the art market.

Please find more info (in Greek) on the conference, as well as the detailed programme, at Athens Art Business Conferences.

The Age of Biennials

2010-01-20T11:24:00.005+02:00

Museum of Cycladic Art | The Age of Biennials | Six Lectures, April 28th - June 2nd 2009, every Tuesday 18:00-20:00 | More information & registrations on the Cycladic Museum Website

XYZ are giving a series of six lectures, at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, on the "Biennial Phenomenon". Starting with their own experience as founders of the Athens Biennale, XYZ will explore the history of Biennales, issues of cultural politics and city development, while offering a backstage glance at the preparation of a biennale.

Goldfish Suddenly Dead

2010-01-20T11:20:00.000+02:00

GOLDFISH SUDDENLY DEAD | April 3rd – May 3rd 2009 | Opening April 2nd 2009 |Extra City Centre for Contemporary Art, Antwerp

XYZ present the group exhibition Goldfish Suddenly Dead, at Extra City Centre for Contemporary Art, Antwerp. The exhibition includes works by Dirk Braeckman, T.S. Eliot, Jan Fabre, Boris Groys, Vassilis Karouk, Mark Manders, Poka-Yio, Lucas Samaras, Gregor Schneider, Vello Vinn, and Eva Vretzaki.

Goldfish Suddenly Dead is a short story about loss: actual, remembered or projected. Yet, death itself – the definitive loss – is neither exalted in this exhibition as a figure nor revered as an icon, but rather humbly present as an unviewed, unspoken rhythm.

XYZ are pursuing their preoccupation with the politics of the personal – the individual coming up against insurmountable dead-ends. Every feeling of smallness, emptiness and powerlessness of the self against the weight of experience is addressed through a brief series of poetic, ironic, and occasionally harsh episodes, within a narrative built into the exhibition space, an experiential environment that will take the viewer from darkness to light and back into darkness. This exhibition is interested in loss and absence as a private, absolutely personal process of facing the inevitabilities of demise; a constant, ongoing fact of life, a life that is composed of small yet crushing realisations – like the child who walks full of anticipation into the bedroom to find its goldfish, having twisted and writhed on the floor for hours in its keeper’s absence, lying in a small puddle, suddenly dead.

Hosted by Extra City | Co-produced by Vidisquare and the Athens Biennale Non – Profit Organisation

UPDATE: Images from the exhibition:

UPDATE: Watch this video - tour from the show:

XYZ: CURATE!

2010-01-20T11:03:00.004+02:00

XYZ: CURATE! | Organized by ΑΚΤΟ | Duration: 20 hours, February 26th - April 9th 2009 | Information & Registrations on the AKTO website

XYZ are giving a series of seminars on curating, in AKTO college of art and design. The seminars cover a range of material on contemporary curating, while also offering the opportunity to participants to consider the practical aspects of the profession, focusing on the preparations for the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN.

JOHN BOCK | A Lecture & Film Retrospective

2010-01-20T10:44:00.017+02:00

JOHN BOCK | A Lecture & Film Retrospective | A Lecture on a city bus: 29.10.08, at 12.00, 13.30, 15.00, 16.30, Reservations: 210 52 32 222 & xyz(at)xyzprojects(dot)org | Film Retrospective: 30.10 – 05.11.08, MIKROKOSMOS cinema, Screenings daily at 21.00 & 23.00, except Monday 03.11 at 17.00 & 19.00 (For a detailed screenings program click here.)

XYZ are proud to present A Lecture by John Bock.
The Lecture will take place on board a city bus that will travel through the streets of downtown Athens, on Wednesday, October 29th 2008.

John Bock’s Lectures are performances where the artist uses his own sculptures as sets and props and his own manipulated words and invented language, admittedly frantic and devoid of ‘proper’ syntax, as a means to challenge and confront human relationships. Bock engages in a continuous role-playing of different illogical personae, interweaving stories and situations that emerge as absurd, often hilarious, sometimes threatening or violent, and poetic.

John Bock was born in 1965 in Gribbohm. He lives and works in Berlin.

The Lecture will be repeated four times, during four bus rides, at 12.00, 13.30, 15.00, and 16.30. The Lecture is open to the public and free of charge, but seating on each bus ride is limited and registration is required. The bus will pick up registered passengers / viewers of the Lecture at the designated times, in Othonos Street, Syntagma Square, in the centre of Athens, and will return there at the end of the Lecture. The Lecture will be filmed. Please contact us at +30 210 5232222 or at xyz@xyzprojects.org to make your free of charge reservation for the Lecture.

The Lecture by John Bock will be followed by a Retrospective of films by the artist, from October 30th to November 5th 2008, at Mikrokosmos Cinema. A different selection of a total of 29 varied short and feature-length films will be shown each day. The selection will be screened twice daily, at 21.00 and at 23.00, with the exception of the screening of November 3rd, which will take place at 17.00 and 19.00. Tickets for the Film Retrospective are available, to book in advance or to purchase on the day, at Mikrokosmos Cinema (106, Syngrou Ave., Athens, tel. +30 2109215305). Entrance to the Film Restrospective: euro 7.50, euro 5 (reduced), per screening. Week-long discount passes are also available.

For Media enquiries: Ms Vivian Efthimiopoulou at Stratego Communications on +30 210 7217771 or efthimiopoulou@stratego.gr

This project is kindly supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Transport and Communication, The Goethe Institut, Athen, and the Athens Biennale Non Profit Organisation.

UPDATE: Images from the Lecture (photos by Jan Windszus):

UPDATE: Watch this interview by John Bock, on the "ElCulture" TV show. Intro in Greek, interview in English.

Destroy Athens

2010-01-19T21:39:00.008+02:00

1st Athens Biennale 2007 | DESTROY ATHENS | 10th September - 18th November | ”Technopolis” of the City of Athens

Destroy Athens tells a story. A story about ruptures and dead-ends, which emerges from a completely empirical observation: we, each one of us, the subject of every action and every conscience is built through the eyes of others. What is important is that it is not being constructed by others – it is all an internal affair: the subject builds its own self, but its building material is the perception of others. And this fact is the precondition of any recognition, collectivity, connection, participation, sense of community.

This precondition is a necessity, but at the same time that the subject feels it, lives it and depends on it, it will never accept it: we never want to be what we are; we claim the right not to be what we are. Rupture is constantly lurking in the possibility of claiming refusal: at every instant, we are entitled to deny the precondition of collectivity and abolish any connection or relationship. The story is divided in six chapters.

Artists: FIRST DAY: Julian Rosefeldt & Piero Steinle, Void Network, Marc Bijl, The Erasers, Adbusters,hobbypopMUSEUM, Banu Cennetoglu | SECOND DAY: Omer Ali Kazma, Nikos Kessanlis, Jannis Savvidis, Florian Süssmayr, Ciprian Muresan, Chris Evans, The Otolith Group, Edward Lipski, Bernhard Willhelm, Yorgos Sapountzis, Eva Stefani, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Olaf Nicolai, Folkert de Jong, John Kleckner, Jannis Varelas,Eva Vretzaki, Stelios Faitakis, Pablo Picasso | THIRD DAY:Olaf Breuning, Gregor Schneider, Thanassis Totsikas, Bjarne Melgaard, Annelise Coste, Lotte Konow Lund, Jan Freuchen, Kajsa Dahlberg, Robert Gober,Georgia Sagri, Pierre Joseph, Sean Landers, Mark Manders | FOURTH DAY: Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Torbjorn Rodland | FIFTH DAY: Aidas Bareikis, Kimberly Clark, Narve Hovdenakk, Martin Skauen, Vassilis Patmios Karouk,Erkan Ozgen, John Bock, Yiannis Adamakos, Terence Koh | SIXTH DAY: Elodie Pong, Temporary Services & Angelo,Peter Dreher, Christian Marclay, Derek Jarman, Eleni Mylonas

Please find more info on "Destroy Athens", as well as images from the exhibition, at the Athens Biennale website.

2010-01-19T21:09:00.010+02:00

XYZ are Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka-Yio and Augustine Zenakos. They were formed as a curatorial trio in 2005. They curated the 1st Athens Biennale 2007 “Destroy Athens”, and they were artistic directors for the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 “Heaven”. XYZ are interested in manipulating the exhibition space in order to create a narrative experience for the viewer.

You can browse through XYZ's projects here.

2010-01-19T20:44:00.035+02:00

XYZ present XYZ Outlet and their new practice: "DRY: No drinks, no party, just an art quickie".

In a tiny, abandoned store, in the downtown area of Metaxourgeio, a variety of projects will be showcased every two weeks, every other Tuesday, starting December 7^th 2010 and running until the end of 2011. Each project will start promptly at 20:00 and will last up to an hour.

The concept of this curatorial project is built along two main interests that form the core of XYZ’s practice: the politics of the personal, and the issue of narrative, ‘experiential’ and ‘immersive’ space. Along these two axes, notions of identity, representation, history, oppression, and possibilities of critical engagement in the face of crisis, will be addressed through versatile artistic gestures, selected for their intuitive, indirect, empirical and sometimes poetic approach. At the same time, a number of the selected projects will form part of a sort of ‘sketchbook’, a series of notes for the upcoming 3rd edition of the Athens Biennale 2011, co-curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and XYZ, the narrative of which begins with a rather peculiar encounter between Walter Benjamin and the Little Prince in contemporary Athens.

A small stage for experimentation and presentation of idiosyncratic artistic positions, where, within short periods, projects will interchange in a relay and trigger discourse, XYZ Outlet will act as a twisted worrywart in the heart of one of the most controversial neighborhoods of Athens, and quite literally outlet a tangential view on exhibition making and structures. A cozy and friendly hub for unexpected and disconcerting ideas.

XYZ Outlet is located at 8, Perdika Street, Metaxourgeio, quite close to the Metaxourgeio Metro Station. (See map)

Please bookmark the XYZ Outlet program page, so you can keep up with events, or join our facebook page for regular updates.

For inquiries, please contact XYZ.

2010-01-18T21:20:00.003+02:00

Please contact XYZ at: xyz(at)xyzprojects(dot)org

For inquiries about XYZ Outlet, please contact Ms Zoe Charaktinou, Assistant Curator, on +30 210 5232222, or at xyz (at) xyzprojects (dot) org.

Please note that although XYZ are happy to receive submissions from artists, and they do look at everything they receive, please consider that it is not always possible for them to give feedback or to enter into discussion about unsolicited submissions.

2010-01-18T16:03:00.016+02:00

Programme:

XYZ Outlet : Poka-Yio | Bordello Nacional | Curated by Marina Vranopoulou | 12/9 - 15/12 | Iassonos 47, Metaxourgeio, 104 36, Athens
Read more

Past projects:

XYZ Outlet #1: In Danger of Early Disappearance | A performance by Angelita Tsougou & Patricia Apergi

XYZ Outlet #2: Port Bou: 18 Fragments for Walter Benjamin | A film by Ross Birrell & David Harding

XYZ Outlet #3: Panayiotis Lamprou | Photos from "Untitled History"

XYZ Outlet #4: Yiorgos Veltsos | Talk

XYZ Outlet #5: "Mavros Kyklos" ("Black Circle")

XYZ Outlet #6: Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter | “Ten Weyngaert"

XYZ Outlet #7: Panayiotis Loukas | "D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres qui meurent"

XYZ Outlet #8: George - Icaros Babassakis | DDD [Debord Dérive Détournement]: Guy Debord and the City as a Playground

XYZ Outlet #9: Ciprian Mureşan

XYZ Outlet #10: Stelios Karamanolis & Toula Ploumis | "The Collection"

XYZ Outlet #11: Irini Karayannopoulou & XYSM Live

XYZ Outlet #12: HOPE | I WANT TO HEAR NEW WAR

XYZ Outlet #13: YELP danceco. | no end,then/parergon 2

XYZ Outlet #14: Elisavet Kapogianni | Are you enjoying an intercontinental life?

XYZ Outlet #15: Andreas Angelidakis | The Building that went to the Mountain (Demo of a study for a dying building)- A talk

XYZ Outlet #16: Jimmy Efthimiou & Orizontas Gegonoton | Eros or Nothing

Read more

XYZ Outlet #17: Georgia Sagri| Antigone Model | Tuesday 13th September

Read more

XYZ Outlet #18: KERNEL | Index of Potential | Tuesday 27th September
Read more

XYZ Outlet #19: Lakis and Aris Ionas / The Callas | “WALKING IN THE DARK / LOOKING FOR YOUR TOY” | Tuesday 11th October

XYZ Outlet #20: Panayiotis Koulouras | Impressions | Tuesday 25th October
Read more

John Bock Film Retrospective

2010-01-18T10:24:00.002+02:00

Screenings Program

(all films have Greek subtitles)

Day 1 – Thursday 30 October 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

Porzellan Isoschizo Küchentat des neurodermitischen Brockenfalls im Kaffeestrudel

2001, 01: 45 min, with John Bock

Zero Hero

2005, 35: 03 min, with John Bock and Thomas Loibl

Astronaut

2003, 20: 27 min, with John Bock

Meechfieber

2004, 37: 00 min, with Anne Tismer, Lars Rudolph and John Bock

Day 2 – Friday 31 October 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

Boxer

2002, 02: 29 min, with John Bock

Erdmann

2002, 17: 43 min, with John Bock

Kschrank

2003, 13: 40 min, with John Bock

Palms

2007, 59: 14 min, with Thomas Loibl, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Gunter Ziegler, Ulli Lommel, Diego Wallraff, Adrian Lohmüller, Ryan Inouye, Ayana Hampton, John Bock, Thomas Schumacher, Clark Gentry, Earl Waterman, George Burgess, Shereen Staggs and The Sibleys

Day 3 – Saturday 1 November 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

Baum

2002, 01: 58 min, with John Bock and William Parton

Antonin Artaud und die Pest

2005, 14: 29 min, with John Bock and Geraldine Py

Kleinodtotsod

2003, 07: 46 min, with John Bock

Wühl um die Klumpen

2002, 22: 10 min, with John Bock and Jochen Dehn

Inside Beyond

2007, 46: 31 min, with Anne Tismer, Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen and John Bock

Day 4 – Sunday 2 November 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

VAS-Y-Inside

2006, 04:00 min, with John Bock

Der Fischgrätenmelkstand kippt ins Höhlengleichnis Refugium

2008, 24: 00 min, with John Bock and Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen

Reziproker Break-even-point im Molloch

2002, 11: 56 min, with John Bock

Skipholt

2005, 54: 57 min, with Sirra Sigrun Sigurdardottir, Daniel Bjornsson and John Bock

Day 5 – Monday 3 November 2008

Screenings at 17.00 & 19.00

Trecker

2003, 03: 26 min, with John Bock

Gast

2004, 11: 24 min

Malträtierte Fregatte

2007, 66: 41 min, with John Bock, Thomas Loibl, Uta Priew, Anne Tismer and Blackmail

Zezziminnegesang

2006, 27: 30 min, with John Bock and Adrian Lohmüller

Day 6 – Tuesday 4 November 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

Frau im Hotel

2006, 03: 13 min, with Anne Tismer

Alice Cooper

2001, 04: 55 min, with John Bock

Salon de Béton

2005, 22: 35 min, with Anne Brochet, Andreas Schlegel and John Bock

Dandy

2006, 58: 55 min, with John Bock, Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen and Adrian Lohmüller

Day 7 – Wednesday 5 November 2008

Screenings at 21.00 & 23.00

Cappuccini e sigarette

2005, 11: 19 min, with Danilo Altese, Margherita Anello, Rita Casida, Gabriella Cianciolo, Massimo Corsini, Ambra Di Trapani, Antonia Giusino, Teresa Lo Monaco, Luca Mannino, Nadia Parisi, Alessandro Prestipino, Linda Randazzo, Maurizio Tedesco, Angela Viola, Viviana Zinna

Pied de Porc

2008, 15: 41 min, with John Bock

PestKOP im black rebel motorcycle club

2005, 24: 23 min, with John Bock

Lütte mit Rucola

2006, 35: 40 min, with Mario Irrek, Lütte and John Bock